VLADIVOSTOK, November 14. /TASS/. Discussion sites like the Valdai Club provide opportunities for free debate, but time will be required to understand what was said at the forum’s recent meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an exclusive interview with TASS.
Asked whether he “got any reaction” from his foreign partners following his Valdai forum speech, Putin said he did not.
“Talking with experts is the essence of the Valdai Club. It (the debate) somehow was free of any bounds. I agree that the debates there… are supposed to be in the same format, which somehow expresses the acute nature of shaping up the further direction of the debates — to provoke partners to come forward and express their opinions — so that we could jointly look for ways of possible solutions at an expert level,” he said.
“But pragmatic issues are more often discussed when we meet with counterparts at a bilateral level,” Putin said.
“Time is necessary if someone wants to hear what I had exactly said. It must be all well digested at the administrative, governmental and presidential levels, starting at the notch of aides, experts, with discussions to be followed without any clamor and senseless chirping, which are usually attributed to such forums as the Valdai Club. It is better to talk in the calm of our offices,” he said.
“All these debate forums are good for sincere talks. However, as I have said before, it is good to return to issues without any fuss in the calm of offices and discuss everything over. It requires time,” Putin said.
{article_photo:756477:'Financial Times Putin’s Valdai speech one of most important foreign policy statements':'right':'50'}Putin's speech at Valdai Club
Putin had spoken at a meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in the southern Russian resort of Sochi on October 24.
In particular, he criticized the United States and its allies for destroying the existing international security system.
“What we needed to do was to carry out a rational reconstruction and adapt it to the new realities in the system of international relations,” Putin said at the Valdai forum in Sochi last month.
“But the United States, having declared itself the winner of the Cold War, saw no need for this. Instead of establishing a new balance of power, essential for maintaining order and stability, it took steps that threw the system into sharp and deep imbalance,” he said.
At the same time, the Russian president gave a clear signal that Russia, despite sanctions and cooling in relations with the West, does not intend to fence itself off from the world and is ready for dialogue with the West for normalization of economic relations.
Political scientists called Putin’s Valdai speech one of the most important foreign policy statements of the Russian leader after his speech in Munich in 2007.